I tend to always get stuck with terribly difficult GE classes, however, this class was very easy and fun. Professor Catlin truly wants to get to know all her students and is very understanding. There is a lot of reading and listening related to the class, but I did none of it and studied with the study guide provided before the midterm and final and still scored high. The grade is comprised of the midterm, final, and an essay. The TA's are so helpful and genuine (shout out to Mukesh). Definitely recommend if you are looking for an easy GE that will not bore you and doesn't require a crazy amount of work.

Professor Catlin is an amazing professor! She is unbelievably knowledgeable about the course material, and her lectures are always interesting. I think Professor Catlin did a good job of adapting to the online format, and my experience with the course was not diminished. She was also able to answer student questions very effectively, and was prompt in responding to emails. Having guest lecturers teach us about and give us demonstrations of Indian musical instruments like the sitar and tabla was amazing, and definitely enriched the class. Grading was very fair, and Professor Catlin's empathy for students during the COVID-19 pandemic and civil unrest issues was made evident when she decreased the page requirements for the essay, awarded extra credit for writing more, and decreased the difficulty of the final exam. The only downside to this class is that lectures are a bit disorganized and can be a bit hard to follow at times. Discussion attendance is mandatory, and try to do the readings so you can contribute to discussion, which is almost entirely spent talking about the readings. Some of the readings are long, but it pays to do them because 10 of the questions on the midterm and 10 of the questions on the final are on readings. You have to write either two 5-page papers or one 10-page paper—I went for the first option so I didn't run out of material to write about.

WARNING: The content for this class begins in the 1930's, and only reaches the early 2000's, so if you're hoping to learn about recent Bollywood music, you'll probably be disappointed. That being said, I learned several songs that SLAP, even if they're from the 1940's.

Being able to speak Hindi made this class even easier for me, but if you put in modest effort, an A/A+ is easily achievable, especially under an online format. Making a class study guide on Google Docs for exams based on the review sheets is a GREAT IDEA. I feel like this course really expanded my knowledge about Bollywood music, and music beyond the scope of Bollywood, as indicated in the course title. I learned a lot just by attending lectures and discussion sections, and the readings further enhanced my knowledge. I hope this class continues to be offered at UCLA, regardless of whether classes are online or in person!!!

Grade breakdown:
30% Midterm: Listening, Reading, and Class Lectures: 10 points each
30% Final: Listening, Reading, and Class Lectures: 10 points each
30% Paper(s)
10% Class Attendance and Participation in Friday Sections

Listen. Easy af. I don't know how it is if you're not brown/don't know anything about bollywood, but if you, like me, grew up on bollywood it is so fucking easy. don't go to lecture, don't do the readings, just look over the review sheets

The tests in this class are super easy (MCQ). You just need to go over the terms and readings that the Professor lists on the Midterm/Final review sheet. However, lectures can be quite boring and you don't really learn that much. The class is not structured well - the terms on the review sheet are usually random hindi/urdu/tamil words that we have to memorize the meanings of. The Professor herself has knowledge of the material but her voice is faint, making it hard to hear her. She usually just plays songs from movies produced during 1950-1990 and explains the plot. You have to memorize the names of the songs, the storyline of the movies they were in, and a few musical aspects for the tests.

Although you DO NOT need to know Hindi/Urdu to take this class, I will say that it helps a lot if you do - because you understand the meanings of the songs/movies she talks about it and that allows you to recall details easily.

professor and TA are one of the favorite and sweetest people i have even seen in UCLA. Amy is very very nice and helpful person. She is great greatest professor rich of music knowledge. As you all know, TA's in UCLA sucks (sorry for being factual toward TA's) except few, but GABRIEL is one of the chill and nicest TA i have ever seen.
I recommend all background people to take this class to boost GPA. In our class there were not only brown people, but people from China, Japan, guess Korea and African American as well.

Tbh I never really understood what was happening in lectures since everything felt like different tangents but the professor and TAs will give you a summary of what you should review before midterms/finals so you will be fine. Class size was relatively small and most people didn't show up so it allowed us to spend some 1-1 time with the professor and she is very very sweet and easily approachable either in person or through emails. She accommodates well and is very passionate about what she is teaching and wants to see her students succeed.
Would reccomend taking this class with friends since it makes it more enjoyable and should also note that the material starts from the 1910s and comes up 1 decade each week (week 10 is late 2000s, early 2010s).

Only good things about this class were the TA Armen Adamian and the easy multiple choice tests. Professor's opinions about India and it's music industry are suck in the 70s which gets very old very fast. Attendance in lectures doesn't matter and I didn't attend at all after the midterm. Only discussion attendance counts for points (10% of the grade) and if Armen is still there don't worry about switching into a certain discussion because he lets you attend whatever's best for you. Midterm and final have listening, reading, and movie questions. You don't have to go to class except for the lecture before each exam where she'll write a list on the board of what songs and readings are fair game.
If you can, make her say what movies to know too because they were super out of the blue to us and Armen got her to curve the midterm for us since no one knew to memorize movie plots. He made study guides for us and all she had to do was look at them to see if they covered everything but she was too lazy to do even that. She'll make you want to drop from how boring she is and how horrible her taste in music and movies is but power through, stay on top of the readings, be able to recognize the songs, and know a sentence summary for each song's movie plot and you'll get an easy A. There's a final paper but don't stress cuz mine was actual trash, I'd light it on fire if I could, and I still got an A. Just have some self-respect and get it done before the last minute unlike me.

The professor means well, but her lectures are so unorganized that this class is at times unbearable. She would cover way too many films in one lecture, we'd watch little snippets from as many as 10 films in one 2 hour lecture, so it was impossible to get anything worthwhile out of lectures. Also don't take it if you think it is going to be about modern bollywood, this class should be called HISTORY of bollywood because most of it is really old bollywood. Lecture was so unorganized and pointless that I just stopped going after the midterm. Discussion with TA Gavin was always pretty helpful and helped make sense of the class. The exams are pretty easy, she gives out study guides for the exams, which show you all of the readings, songs, people, and films you need to know for the exam. Memorize the study guides and you'll get an A on the exams. Overall, this class is a little disappointing, but it is easy and doable.

This class is very easy yet challenging at the same time. I stopped going to class week 5 and completely stopped all the readings I would only focus on the paper for the class which is worth 30% of your grade. The paper is composed of 2- 5 page papers or one 10 page paper your choice. The focus has to be on one film song (or two if your doing the 2- 5 pages). Overall study the night before the test the study guide and listen to all the songs and you should do fine. (Make sure you read because 10 questions are on the reading)
Class make up
30% paper
30% midterm (30 questions multiple choice (options A,B,C only)) NOTE EACH QUESTION IS ONE PERCENT OF YOUR GRADE FAIR WARNING.
30% Final (Same as midterm each question ONE PERCENT OF YOUR GRADE)
10% Attendance to your discussion (EACH DISCUSSION ONE PERCENT OF YOUR GRADE)
Most kids however got A's in class so do not be afraid of the make up you will be fine :)

I really enjoyed this class! If you are Indian or you have any knowledge of Indian culture/cinema it is basically a guaranteed A. It helps to know some Hindi words and some cultural/historical information about the Subcontinent if you want to wing all the assignments, but you should be able to learn everything you need to do well on the exams and the final paper. The professor is really nice and is passionate about the subject. I highly recommend this class for anyone looking for an interesting GE to take!